


Invisible

by Readywriter2



Series: An Anthology of Unhappiness [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Light Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-21
Updated: 2020-07-21
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:26:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 883
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25422376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Readywriter2/pseuds/Readywriter2
Summary: You keep doing this – keep pretending you’re invisible – someday you’ll become invisible.
Series: An Anthology of Unhappiness [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1841410
Kudos: 13





	Invisible

**Author's Note:**

> You stand regally aboard your ship, and peer at the horizon with your telescope. You gasp.
> 
> Could it be?
> 
> No, no, it can't be...
> 
> I'm actually writing!
> 
> Yeah life's been too busy lately but today I actually wrote something. Hooray

The soft blanket wrapped him up in a cocoon, and the bed’s cosy covers beckoned to him. Not because he was tired – in the physical sense, at least. He did not have much desire to sleep. But he remained unmoving on the bed all the same, lying on his side. His bed – his room, in general, felt like a protected space.

Not that he was in any danger. One might have laughed at him – an adolescent, curled up on a bed like a child hiding from a monster. 

He wasn’t hiding from a monster. But like the child, he was escaping from something.

It was ridiculous. He’d faced more daunting tasks than this. He’d camped in the wilderness where he’d faced off actual monsters. He’d excelled in tests that had intimidated the kingdom’s top academics. He’d fended himself from the insults of others – for as long as he could remember. He had never shied away from such challenges – and now, he was hiding from his own family for no discernible reason.

Mother will be upset. It’s so rare that we get to have dinner as a family without having to deal with diplomats, the voice in his head nagged.

Maybe that was the real problem.

Just a few months ago he’d done the same – albeit by accident. He’d been so caught up with reading that he’d completely missed the time of dinner – and he’d rushed to the dining room when he finally realised what time it was. He didn’t blame the servants for not reminding him, because he’d specifically instructed that no one bother him while reading.

When he finally reached the dining room, the rest of his family had already started. Thor was talking to their father about something. They were engrossed in conversation, and Thor looked so passionate, so happy. Frigga had only given him that look – the look that meant don’t do this again.

Yet here he lay in his bed.

It was too difficult. He could remember when he was young, and during the rare times like private dinners with his family, he would talk so passionately about sorcery – his parents would ask questions, they’d nod along to know he was listening, and Thor would at least look like he was paying attention and sometimes even inquire.

Something changed.

Thor hadn’t changed. He still talked about his friends, about his fight training during dinner. But now, when it came to Loki the dinner conversation became stilted. Awkward. Unnatural. Then it became incumbent on Thor to bring the conversation back to life by talking about something else.

When that happened, it became a tug of war on Loki’s feelings. He was relieved that the awkwardness dissolved, and yet he was unspeakably angry at Thor for taking the spotlight away from him. (Always, he always does that, always gets all the attention - )

But that day, when he came in late, with dinner halfway through and his family engrossed in other conversation, he was altogether invisible.

And it felt good. To be detached from his family. To live on with his life without them. It felt like he was eating dinner by himself, with the conversation being background noise. Frigga didn’t have the opportunity to ask him about his day. By then, dinner had ended.

Today, he’ll be purposely committing truancy.

I don’t hate my family…

Do I?

He turned from lying on his side to lying on his back, and stared up at the smooth white ceiling.

He was really going through with this. He was going to intentionally miss half of dinner, just to do this. Not the entire dinner, because Frigga (not Odin, not Thor, but Frigga) would become suspicious. If he only missed the beginning of dinner, they would chalk it up to him being too focused on reading.

So he observed the white ceiling.

Eventually, he got up. Before making his way down, he paused by his bedside mirror. 

Eyebags were etched into his face. When he looked into his own eyes, he saw nothing.

By the time he entered the dining room, the food was more than halfway finished. This time, even Frigga was so engrossed in what Thor and Odin were talking about that no one realised he’d entered the room. He was only noticed – first by Frigga – when he sat down at the dinner table, next to Thor.

This time, Frigga didn’t give him that look, but instead, smiled gently at him. Loki’s lips parted a little in surprise. (Does she know he did this on purpose? She always knows - )

Odin only turned his head a little to nod at him, before looking back at Thor, who was rambling on about the happenings of his training. Thor was too inobservant to notice that motion. (Was it selective inobservance?)

His mother was kind enough to have taken a portion of food from the main servings and put it on a plate for him. He ate without needing to take more food from the main plates. It really felt like he was eating alone.

This time, he wasn’t angry about not being noticed. (Was he?) After all, he’d skipped the first part of the meal on purpose.

You keep doing this – keep pretending you’re invisible – someday you’ll become invisible.

But what was so bad about that?

**Author's Note:**

> I hesitated about starting this work/series, but then I said "meh" and then proceeded to finish writing it in one day. (shocking! Gasp!)
> 
> I don't know if I'm actually going to continue this series because it will most likely be just a collection of random one-shots that aren't set with a fixed timeline in mind. The most likely future of this series is that I'll continue it, but not in chronological order since there isn't a set plot.
> 
> Constructive criticism is welcomed! (pls go easy on me I haven't written for so long /:)


End file.
